Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1887-09-22
THE GENERALS STORY.
A Dreadful Experiencein Africa.


A Dreadful Experiencein Africa
The Deadly Work Of a Hidden Kabyle-Ro
mantle Manner in Which the Officer FOUND
Wife.
Translated tor The Cincinnati En-.
wirer from the French of De Boisgo.
boy, by E. c. Waggener.]
After dinner we took our coffee upon
the terrace OF the chateau. Twilight
had fallen and rising moon began to
light up softly landscape wonderfully
pleasing to the eye, wood Of oaks to
the left, garden of Towering heath
and boundless expanse of sky. The
General holding an enormous cigar be-
tween his teeth, sent forth great mouth
fuls and clouds of ordorous vapor that
mounted to the heavens in BLUSH spir-
ais. His wife, seated beside him, rolled
cigarette; we were all smoking. in
fact, but nobody spoke.
This wife of the General, fully fifteen
years younger than her husband. was
STILL A VERY BEAUTIFUL WOMAN,
And more than one of us envied the
lot of the old soldier, though we really
knew nothing about him, save what
all knew, that he was rich. gentle
man and had served CALAMITY up to
the time he had received a serious
wound at the siege of Paris, and been
forced to take his retreat. We knew
this, say, but nothing more. He had
bought the chateau soon after the war,
but had occupied it only six months,
and, as this was the first time we had
been honored with an invitation to be-
come his guests, we were naturally a
little timid.
At last, however. the doctor Of the
canton, in other days a surgeon in the
Army of Africa, ventured to break the
silence by asking the General to tell us
of campaigns, or at least one of those
little military episodes which so aid
digestion. He demurred at first, but
after interrogating his wife with a
glance, to which she responded with an
encouraging smile, he thus began:
"Gcutlcmen, have any of you ever
eaten q rabbit curried with olives?
No, you have not? Well, l am not
astonished. 1t is dish of which French
cooks have never had the recipe, but
possess it, and with your permission
will tell you where and how l learned
it. 1t dates far back, before l had been
under fire for the first time.
"On graduating from st. Cyr," con-
tinucd the General, Il had ut the out
set a chance to enter the Zouaves, and
debarked at Algicrs month before the
first expedition to Kabyle. for at the
the time our Colonel did not go very
far into the enemy's country. Never.
| theless, he
FRETTED HIMSELF CONTINUALLY,
70 give lesson to a certain tribe OF
Flssas that perchcd in the heart of the
mountains, some fifteen leagues above
Algers, and finally the order was given,
despite the knowledge that these
savages would fight like devils or mad.
men, and that the position would be
hard to break up. A beautiful debut
for sous Lieutenant of twenty years,
and | was not at all joyous at the pros
pect. pcrpetually asking myself what
effect the whist ne of the balls would
have upon me. STU, curious as l was
to know what this effect would be,
was not at all anxious to try it.
.'Oar first affair engaged us on the
border of river which we called the
User. and VIII CHI we were forced to
cross with the water to our shoulders
and the Kabyles firing upon US from a
distance. The balls from their long
flint guns passed directly above .oul
heads with Il muse like the singing OF
flutes. But while they were firing ut
rs in this harmless fashion we uneX-
pcctedly caught them in the plain with
troup of cavalry, and it was truly a
com; cal sight TO see them run before
our Spahis, who, withol 1t giving them.
selves the trouble TO saber them out
right, seized them by the tops of their
burnous, aud, raising them as you
would raise a glove. left the victim on
the earth all naked. Decidedly l said
to myself, this war is very amusing
thing
"Thc next day however, we had tC
fight again; the Flissas had mounted tc
the crest of the mountains, and there
awaited us. We bivouacked for the
night at the foot of the mountain and
departed before day without sounding
the revcilc.
WE HOPED TO SURRENDER THEM,
But they were on their guard, and from
all appearances prepared to receive us
"Tor more than an hour we climbed
toward the crest by pathway fit onl,
for goats. AS dawn commenced t.
whiten the sky the gunshot of IL Kabyle
sentinel sounded just above Us. /
seems to me hear it yet-the devilsf
gunshot-thouSh in the meantime
have listened TO many others, withou
counting the Prussian cannonadt
around the walls of Paris. 1t thrille,
me from head to foot; but it was moi
for long The captain cried: I'm avant
my lads! En- avantr' and we dashe'
ahead. Suddenly | stumbled and fell
tripped upon the body of man, ont
of my own Zouaves, Quilted by th
stroke of a bayonct, and lying acros
the road by which we mounted.
"Stll. ] did not stay to examine him
for they were firing upon us from a
sides, the dcadlicst havoc being mad
in our ranks by the shots that cam
from cluster of novels upon kind c
plateau covered with brushwood, an,
there we fought for long tine.
At last we were masters of the pos
ton and the Kabyles in full retreat. l
my own company alone eleven me
were missing at roll-call, and towar